World Dairy Expo General Manager Resigns

World Dairy Expo General Manager Resigns

Mark Clarke, General Manager of World Dairy Expo, has submitted his resignation to the WDE Executive Committee. Clarke has accepted another management position that will be announced soon.

At the time when Clarke took over as leader of World Dairy Expo, it was a well-established dairy industry event. In 2007, the event was drawing 66,000 visitors including 2,100 international guests from 80 countries. The recent 2012 event hosted nearly 72,000 visitors and 2,950 of those traveled from 95 countries. The dairy cattle show has become recognized as the most important dairy cattle competition in the world with over 2,300 head of cattle. World Dairy Expo continues to gain respect as “the place where the dairy industry meets” and at the recent event hosted 863 commercial trade show companies from 28 countries that unveiled the latest dairy technologies, innovations and concepts.

During Clarke’s leadership, Expo initiated a world-class dairy cattle health check-in policies and procedures system that better protects the dairy cattle exhibitors, attendees and dairy industry. During his tenure Expo has gained further financial stability and now encompasses reserves that allow flexibility and opportunity for future investments to ensure that the event will continue to thrive and succeed in the future. Most recently, Clarke was appointed to the Alliant Energy Center Task Force, along with other key stakeholders, to study needed facility improvements and potential partnership opportunities to enhance the usability of the site for a wide variety of events including World Dairy Expo.

Clarke has led the World Dairy Expo staff since 2007. He was the fifth person to serve as General Manager in World Dairy Expo’s 46 year history. Bruce Walter managed the first show in 1967; Bev Craig led the organization for the next twelve years and Brad Rugg for seven years following Craig. Tom McKittrick, who resigned in 2007 served as the general manager for nineteen years prior Mark Clarke. World Dairy Expo is a non-profit organization. Its for-profit subsidiary, WDE Management Inc., provides management services to the Dane County Fair, the Wisconsin Rural Opportunities Foundation, the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge and the Purebred Dairy Cattle Association.

“Center of the Dairy Universe” is the theme for World Dairy Expo 2013 which will be held October 1-5, 2013 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.worlddairyexpo.com.